Hanamaru (Sapporo, Japan)

I was recently in Japan where the food is amazing! While in Sapporo, our guide told us that some of the best sushi in town was at a place in the Sapporo train station called Hanamaru. She warned us there would be a long line and well….see below.

The wait time was about an hour but the system inside is very efficient and the turnover is quite fast. The first to come off the conveyer belt was salmon, tuna, and the scallop roll.

I figure we would start off with the basics like salmon and tuna. BEST SUSHI I’VE EVER HAD! How is it possible that it is this much better than every other place?! Japan must hoard the good fish. Next we pulled off a cooked item because you know, fried chicken. Here is the HUGE morsels of Chicken Kaarage.

Hot, crunchy, and insanely juicy! We saw the next dish pass by a couple times and I won’t lie, I pulled it off a couple times because after the first bite I had to have more. This was one of my favorite dishes: Aburi salmon.

I don’t know what it is about torched sushi that I love. I love the freshness of raw sushi but the heat must bring out more flavor additional flavors. Here is the Aburi fluke, which I also couldn’t help pulling off numerous times.

We also tried the Inari, sushi rice wrapped in deep fried tofu wrap.

Nothing to write home about, but solid. Next that came off the belt was the O-toro, because you can’t ever pass up fatty tuna belly!

So rich. So awesome! And then the medium fat tuna came by.

Almost as rich but not as oily and fatty. Both are awesome! If I had a bigger belly, I wouldn’t have stopped. We also saw a scallop roll by so…why not!

Best raw scallop I’ve ever had. Next the Mackeral.

So fresh! So good. You are getting the general message. Another aburi fish came by. Not sure what it was but it was delicious.

The Chef’s are masters at the craft. I’ve never seen sushi chefs throw the rice balls together with such expertise. I watched them plate 6 plates in less than 30 seconds. It was awesome and we had a front row seat!

There is constantly good stuff passing by on the belt which makes overeating an easy endeavor. We managed to keep it a little under control but all left full.

To date, this is the best sushi I’ve had in my life. And what’s crazy, is that we ate enough to fill up 3 people for less than $50! How is that possible?! Best sushi of my life for that cheap! I should move to Japan.